The Secret Lives of Boys
by Disillusioned-Slytherin
Summary: We, the boys of Hogwarts, solemnly swear we're up to no good. Eventual SLASH.


1The Secret Lives of Boys

_We, the boys of Hogwarts, solemnly swear we're up to no good._

It was an early December morning like any other, when Harry James Potter awoke in the silent comforts of his four-poster, at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But unlike every day, the students were granted permission for a brief trip to the neighboring town of Hogsmeade, in which, Harry believed he would get some of his holiday shopping done with his best friends Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger.

The biting cold surfaced above his comforter as he rose into a sitting position, rummaging his hand over the side table for his circular spectacles. The room was a blur of reddish tones and golden highlights, the regular and normalcy of the fifth year Gryffindor boy's dormitory.

Everyone still appeared to be nestled under their covers, but by the way the winter sun was dripping over the room, Harry could tell it was about time for all to be awaken if they wanted to make the trip to Hogsmeade with the rest of the students, third years to seventh. And he highly doubted any of his bunkmates would like to miss the opportunity to stuff themselves silly with sweets and to drink the warm and delectable butter beer.

After finally retrieving his glasses, and the world becoming more sharp and recognizable, Harry turned to the bed to the left of him where his best friend Ron slept; he had silently yanked back the curtains to his own bed, to stare at the cloned pair around Ron's own bed. They stood undisturbed, but he knew how Ron had spoken so excitedly of their visit; he had wanted to visit Zonko's joke shop, since his twin brothers Fred and George told of the great new arrivals, after illegally sneaking to the town. It was already well known that the Weasley twins were experts of the secret passageways of the school, thanks to the Marauder's Map, that Harry eventually inherited in his third year.

With gentle footfall onto the chilly wooden planked floors, Harry lifted himself up from his warm sanctuary, and slowly yanked the rope of the curtains to Ron's bed open. As he expected Ron was face down into his pillow, lying limp and somewhat content with the blankets entangled around his lanky body. Like the Weasley twins, Ron had inherited the tall form of his father, which could make him potentially clumsy, but in the words of Lavender Brown, very adorable.

But to Harry, Ron was simply his best friend who usually looked very eccentric in his sleeping pose. However, he was used to it by now and just gave a small chuckle before pressing his index, middle, and wedding finger against his friend's shoulder. There was a tremor that ran through Ron's body by the gentle touch before he grunted in bad temperament; it was always a challenge to wake him.

"Hey, Ron, time to get up..." He was cut off by another groan; it was no surprise that Ron could awaken very quickly, but now he was just being simply stubborn about awakening...no big surprise though.

"No class today...haven't finished Snape's essay." Well was this anything new; Harry could easily exclaim he did nothing of the sort either, his potions teacher's essay was only halfway finished, but that was furthest from his thoughts, as Hogsmeade's possibilities danced through his head.

"Ron, we don't have class today, Hogsmeade remember?" Even at the mention of Hogsmeade, Ron had leapt up from his bed, eyes wide open; it always did the trick...unfortunately, Harry had pulled that on a regular school day, and instantly had his glasses punched off his face.

As if Ron remembered the memory as he did, he pulled back his fist defensively with the other hand gripping the covers of his bed. It was almost a comical scene if it wasn't for the prospect of being hit, which Harry knew would not happen because he was being truthful this time around; he learned his lesson about fooling Ron, and wouldn't try it again.

"Bloody hell...are you yanking my chain, Harry?" There was a rise in pitch of Ron's voice, as he looked at his best friend like he never seen him before, the Weasley charm to say the least.

Harry threw up his hands in submission before letting out a small laugh, that had to be let free. He couldn't see how there could be anyone else he'd rather be friends with; Ron was his best mate, who had helped him through some frightening times over the past five years, and always remained true to him, even though they had their bouts. But at moments as silly as this one, Harry realized how grateful he was for Ron and Hermione as well. Harry, however, was sure that more frightful than Ron awakening from a night's slumber would certainly be Hermione...she could be very violent and brutal on her own accord.

"Honestly Ron, do you think I'm that mental to pull that again? It's the seventh, and don't you remember talking about the trip in the common room last night?"

"No, not really...but you know me, I don't know the date ever." Ron finally dropped his fist to his side before looking out at the other beds that were still covered over, and the occupants invisible. "Should we wake the others...Seamus, got really mad when we didn't wake him last time."

Harry remembered the last visit to Hogsmeade and how they were met with the angry face of Seamus in the common room; he had over slept, and Filch, the Hogwarts caretaker, had not let him go. But it was apparent that he and his best friend Dean Thomas had gotten into a fight over some silly chocolate frogs, leading to the reason Dean hadn't woken him like always.

"But I don't think he and Dean are fighting now..."

"I wouldn't take the chance," Ron muttered before swinging his long legs over the bed; he shivered violently before finally standing up, towering over Harry easily. "I'll get him up...and if he slugs me, I'll return the favor."

Harry just shook his shaggy head before reaching his trunk at the foot of his bed; he gently creaked it open and rummaged through his oversized clothing that he had gotten from his cousin Dudley's old collection, that he no longer fit him. But it wasn't like Harry had to wear these clothes, on the contrary, he was quite wealthy in his own respect...well, in the wizarding world. His mother and father had left him a decent amount of gold at the bank in Diagon Alley, Gringotts. However, it just didn't seem proper to waste all his savings on things like clothing when he usually wore his uniform and robes most of the time.

After sorting through an array of tent like t-shirts and cardigans, Harry grabbed a nice knitted sweater with a large H on the chest; Ron's mother, Mrs. Weasley, always had an annual sweater made for him and the rest of her family on Christmas. They were perfectly sized, not overly baggy, and were quite warm for these types of mornings...actually these types of December days.

From the corner of his eye, Harry saw as Ron scuttled across the floor, cursing the cold before pulling the rope to reveal Seamus sleeping soundly. But that was only an after thought as Ron began to shake their poor bunkmate like mad causing a yell to escape from Seamus' lips. And with the angry shout came a sound of their other roomy, Neville Longbottom falling from out of his bed and onto the cold floor.

Neville had managed to disentangle himself from his blankets and sheets before getting to his feet shakily; it could only be implied that Neville thought something bad had occurred, it had only two years before with Harry's godfather Sirius paying a visit to them. His eyes were wide with fear and wonder, instantly running towards Harry side in sheer panic.

"W-what's going on?"

"This bloody fool woke me up!" Seamus managed to shove Ron off of him with a huff before giving a piercing look at Harry who was now shielding Neville from the danger, which was now identified as Seamus Finnigan. "What is your deal?"

"My deal? Last time you had a fit because we didn't wake you up!"

"Well, Dean would have woken me up!" Harry sensed that Neville had slowly begun to calm down because his clammy hands were no longer wrapped around his biceps any longer, and he was making his way past Harry's bed to his own, across from the undisturbed Dean's.

It was simply amazing that Dean Thomas had not been stirred from his slumber, seeing as poor Neville had fallen a victim to what could have possibly been a murder. But Harry was sure that Neville was very alert about his surroundings and proved to be a light sleeper by his current reaction. And actually there was a bit of surprise that some of the other dormitories were not awoken by the sudden strangle cry...

"Dean wake you up? He hasn't even gotten up yet and it's almost time for breakfast! But whatever, next time don't complain to Harry and me when we don't wake you up. If you and Dean get into another fight, you'll have to ask Neville to wake you up..."

"Me?" There was a sudden chirp from Neville's side of the room as he was pulling on his morning robe and grabbing at his clothes that were neatly placed over a chair; it was Neville's new ritual of keeping his clothes at arm's reach and set out because he always forgot one thing or another. "I can't take on the r-responsibility of it!"

It was too early in the morning to have a hysterical Neville, and two angry Gryffindor boys who looked about to fight, and a deadened Dean. Harry was just hoping the trip to Hogsmeade would bring out the civility out of everyone, and they could hopefully avoid any blow up, which seemed to be inevitable.

Harry did not want to be the one to step in between the two boys, but knew he was the only one who could play mediator, seeing as Neville was obviously too fearful of both Seamus and Ron to even try. And the usual level headed Dean was still fast asleep, which was strangely puzzling to him, but knew he had no time to think that over.

"There's no point on fighting about it, Ron just wanted to help, Seamus..."

"What a way to wake someone up!"

"It did the trick didn't it?" Before Ron could fully go into a venomous rant, the door to their dormitory was open to reveal a fully clothed Dean Thomas who looked slightly confused at the scene at hand; Ron and Seamus were now staring angrily at one another as Neville cowered in a corner, and Harry was still holding Mrs. Weasley's sweater.

"Morning, went down for an early breakfast, I want to get to Hogsmeade on time to buy some good gifts," Dean didn't need coursing into where he had been. "I was just coming up to wake you, Seamus, but I'm glad Ron did it instead."

There was an obviously sound of relief in Dean's voice as he headed towards his trunk and grabbed his Gryffindor scarf and robes.

"I reckon you all should get dressed soon, breakfast doesn't wait for anyone and Hermione and Ginny are already headed down to the Great Hall." And with that Dean gave a small wave before going out the door again and leaving them.

"I don't see how he does it...early breakfast?" Seamus shook his head in disbelief as he looked at the three of them, who only shrugged in response. "Well, like Dean said breakfast won't wait for anyone and I intend on having a hearty meal...because I don't want to waste too much money on sweets."

Even at the sound of sweets it seemed like Ron's head instantly drooped; it was no secret that the Weasley family were not the richest wizarding family around, which a particular Slytherin boy had always found a need to remind them. Draco Malfoy was possibly one of the wealthiest children at Hogwarts and found it overly amusing to bother Ron constantly about his money issues, and to bother Harry about everything and anything. There was no love lost between either Ron or Harry towards Malfoy, and it just seemed to be part of their Hogwarts' experience on having that little bugger constantly taunt them.

As if the fight between Seamus and Ron never occurred, both quickly began to dress in their warm winter clothing, as the door opened slightly and closed again; Harry assumed Neville had already finished dressing quickly and went to the boys lavatory, going down to join the rest of their classmates for a delicious breakfast.

Harry had dressed as fast as either Ron or Seamus, yanking the snug wool sweater over his head, and making a disaster of his already unruly hair. He ran a hand through it nonchalantly before following Ron out into the hallway and towards the lavatory for a quick clean up; he could tell that perhaps the words of Seamus spending too much on sweets, was effecting Ron a little because he was quiet through their daily routine of brushing their teeth. At most good times between them, Ron would try to talk through the foam in his mouth, leaving half his shirts covered in toothpaste and making Harry laugh to actually do the same. But not today, they were silent and stoic as they finally climbed down the spiraling staircase into the Gryffindor common room.

"Hogsmeade in twenty! Bloody hell, it seems like they're always making it earlier!" Seamus had awkwardly begun to yank on his winter boots before stumbling towards the portrait hole. "Not even enough time to eat! Hurry or you'll miss out!"

As Harry ran to the portrait hole, in pursuit of Seamus, he felt almost guilty at the way his money bag jangled in the depths of his pocket, and even more so by the eagerness of Ron almost climbing on top of him through the portrait of the fat lady. It didn't seem right that a great family like the Weasleys was hit with such economic problems and fools like Malfoy were living quite luxuriously, but he had no time to think about it because the race had begun.

Thanks to Ron's long legs he had caught up to Seamus and was jumping down another flight of stairs towards the Great Hall; if anything like Ron's happy mood had been missing, it seemed to be evidently restored as he and Seamus shoved each other with shoulders, humorous and yelled that they'd be the first to hit the floor of the Great Hall first. Harry laughed a bit as the trio ran past a bustling pack of first year Hufflepuffs, who were instantly taken aback by their elders acting so recklessly.

At long last the bottom of the steps connected with the ground and the mammoth doors of the Great Hall stood open; people were coming in and out calmly with the sleep still in their eyes and the lethargic level extraordinarily high. But it seemed not to effect either of his comrades as Ron gave a giant leap and stood almost awkwardly on the stone floor; he had almost toppled over, but ran into the hall with a triumphant and smug look.

"Take that, Finnigan!"

"Cheap deal, it's because of how long your legs are, Weasley!" Seamus actually let out a heavy laugh as he finally entered the hall with Harry, who felt almost tired to the point of falling asleep again, but the atmosphere had greatly improved in a very short time.

They approached their house table with a few heaves of breath and sat down across from Neville, who seemed very absorbed with one of his herbology books. And it seemed to be a right guess because he continually shoveled his eggs onto his lap and looking very surprised by it.

As they always did at any meal, the boys of Gryffindor began to stack their plates with anything and everything in sight, and stuffing themselves silly, which always caused a disapproving sigh from their friend Hermione Granger. And it seemed to come exactly on cue as she was sitting across the table between Neville and Ginny Weasley.

"Is it possible to believe you could show proper eating etiquette? And stop shoveling your mouths like hungry barbarians?" Hermione had stopped her conversation with Ginny for a moment to scold them in which case did not seem like a good idea, seeing as Ron was experiencing mood swings.

"Why don't you ask Viktor Krum?" It was said roughly between bites of porridge and bacon, but explained Ron's disinterest in what Hermione had to say; Harry knew far too well, Ron was still recovering from the rejection Hermione gave him while deciding to attend the Yule Ball with his hero, Viktor Krum.

Whenever the topic of Krum came up into conversation, Harry felt like running from the immediate area and hoping neither of them would get too riled up by it, but that was a futile hope. Hermione had gone a brilliant shade of pink as her bottom lip began to tremble, Ron, on the other hand, seemed to be too absorbed in his eating to even recognize the signs of what he had done to his friend.

"And what does Viktor have to do with anything? It is not his fault you eat like an animal..."

"If I remember Hermione, I have a mum at home!"

"Well, well...just imagine how she would feel, seeing you eat like this!" Another interruption had thankfully added into the mix; Harry was gently nudged aside as was Seamus on Ron's other side, as the mischievous Weasley twins sat down next to their younger brother.

Fred and George Weasley, their mother's constant headache, were smiling with their jackal like grins and wrapping their arms around Ron's shoulders. Both of them were looking at Ron expectantly before turning to Hermione with the same goofy face, causing the youngest Weasley, Ginny, to roll her eyes.

"Ah, Granger stop bothering Ronald!"

"Mum would be proud of his eating habits!"

"Seeing as this is how we eat at home..."

"If you want to eat at all!" To this day, it was very hard for Harry to tell Fred and George apart, and today wasn't going to reveal their true identities without asking directly or Ginny or Ron.

Ron had gone a bit red around his ears, as he was being weighed down by his brothers' weight on his shoulders. But if the embarrassment was not enough for the youngest Weasley boy, one of the twins grabbed his fork with some bacon on it and tried to shove it in his mouth.

"Open up wide, Won Won, you must have your strength for today!"

"Speaking of that...is Won Won going to Hogsmeade?" At the question both of the twins looked almost gravely serious before the fork was dropped back to his plate.

Ron seemed to have gotten extremely embarrassed by this time because he remained utterly silent before taking a bold sweep of his eyes around the Great Hall. Harry tried to follow his eyes, and if he was correct, he saw Ron's eyes sweep across the furthest table from their own, the Slytherin house table.

"Well, are you Ronald?" The voice of one of the twins was still teasing, but almost deadly at the same time, which brought a few confused glances towards them, more precisely from Ginny who had never seen her brothers like that.

"Last time I checked, he was!" Ginny finally spoke up causing the three-way eye connection to be broken between her brothers. "And what's it to you? What are you up to George?"

Ginny had finally pointed out who was the last to speak, and Harry still felt no recognition whatsoever; both Fred and George seemed almost like the same person, and it didn't appear one could live without the other.

"Nothing at all...but Ginny you sound a bit like Mum, you know."

"Someone has to keep any eye on you!"

"See you in Hogsmeade, Won Won," Fred finally spoke again with a large smile before yanking Ron close to him and whispering that caused Ron's face to go through a plethora of emotions. "Zonko's has a ton of new stuff."

"Brilliant." As fast the twins came, they slithered away and to where they were originally sitting next to Angelina Johnson.

There was still a disturbance on Ron's face, which Hermione seemed to be contemplating asking about, but obviously changed her mind after their little bout they had gotten into with the mention of Viktor Krum. She was still that surreal hot pink color as she shoved her breakfast plate away from her, almost connecting with Ron's goblet of pumpkin juice; Harry believed that was her initial hope was for it to topple onto his plate, ruining his food, but even if it did happen, Ron seemed to be unaffected.

"Ron are you all right?" Harry finally spoke causing even Neville to seem interested on how he was going to answer, however, Ginny seemed slightly concerned at her brother's roaming eyes from the twins, to the Slytherin table and back onto his scrambled food.

"What are Fred and George up to Ron? If it's something bad you just need to send Mum an owl." Ginny leaned forward slightly catching her brother's wandering gaze for a moment before he covered the upper part of his face with a large hand.

It was not Ron's way to send Mrs. Weasley an owl when it came to Fred and George, and he would never live down the title of snitch. It was already bad for Ron, seeing as he was the youngest boy, and constant teasing of the twins, but he needn't make it worse for himself. And Harry was still very much intrigued by Ron's behavior thus far in the morning; it was highly suspicious that the twins were asking about him going to Hogsmeade, because usually could careless about what Ron was up to.

Harry soon forgot about this trouble because of Seamus busily stuffing a large sausage link into his mouth, barely chewing before downing his goblet of pumpkin juice; Dean had leapt to his feet, tugging eagerly at his best friend's jacket before running towards the doors of the Great Hall.

The two Gryffindor boys were not the only ones who immediately got to their feet, the obvious sign of Filch and Mrs. Norris in the entrance hall was enough to make plenty of other students make a run for the door. It was always a treat to go to Hogsmeade even on one of the coldest days of the year, but it was even more highly intriguing when it was nearing Christmas time and all those wonderful gifts standing in shop windows.

The lights strung from the tops of the small village and the large pine trees, lining the insides of the Hog's Head and Honeydukes. Harry felt that twitch of a smile returning to his face at seeing the little village covered in winter's snow. Every December had always filled him with joy since he had left the dreadful Dursley abode and now was attending schooling at the Hogwarts castle.

As he, Hermione, Ginny, and eventually Fred and George made it into the entrance hall and into the line to be checked out by Filch, Harry realized Ron had not followed in the hectic crowd. Ginny had also seemed to realize this as she stood behind her much taller brothers, who were whispering excitedly to one another.

"What did you gits do?" She had been in the process of covering her hand with one of her gloves, but decided against it and hit one of the twins across the back of his head. "Why did you ask him if he was going to Hogsmeade? What are you up to?"

"Ouch, Ginny! We just asked and I didn't ask, George did!"

"You are George!"

"I'm George, he's Fred..."

"I'm not Mum, I can tell which of you is which!"

"Hey, Ron come get in line!" Harry had started to search the crowd of students for his best friend, which appeared to be quite easy because of the lack of red heads at the school; Ron had been inching calmly out of the Great Hall with an exasperated look. "We can go to Zonko's!"

"Potter must have his weasel, I suppose." Sliding listlessly by was none other than Draco Malfoy who smirked at Ron standing in middle of all the hurrying students, but Malfoy wasn't standing in line either; he was devoid of Crabbe and Goyle, his dim-witted friends and was almost at arm's length to Ron.

"Bugger off, Malfoy!" Ron muttered causing the blonde to let out a small and deviant chuckle and threatening glare. "Just...bugger off."

Harry felt the urge to step out of the line that was now moving slowly towards the front doors, and to grab Ron and forcefully bring him to Hogsmeade and away from that dirty ferret Malfoy, but he felt one of the twins pat him forcefully on the noggin.

"Don't want to lose your spot in line, Harry..."

"Filch won't take kindly to cuts anyhow..."

"Won Won will be okay at the _end_ of the line, won't he?" Malfoy gave an almost proud smile at the twins' words before shoving past Ron forcefully, causing his arm to be yanked behind him briefly, and his hand tightened into a fist.

Hermione seemed to have gotten the same idea as Harry and tried to side step out from in front of Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil to snatch up their friend, but the other twin patted her heavily on the head as well, causing her to stagger. Harry knew they hadn't done it as hard as they did to him, but knew it was hard enough to make her think twice of stepping out of line and trying to retrieve their brother.

Ginny appeared to be very questionable of her brothers' behaviors because she kept glaring at Fred and George before turning a quizzical and concerned look to Ron; Harry didn't know if she and Ron were the closest, seeing as they were only a year apart, but no one was closer in the family than Fred and George, who could easily share the same thought with one glance at one another.

"I'll be okay, don't worry about me Harry...Ginny." Ron had obviously left out Hermione's name as he awkwardly brought back his arm and flexed it tensely. "See you guys later."

With a couple of good shoves with his shoulders, Ron had disappeared out of sight, in the crowds of first years and second years, and a few elder students who obviously did not find Hogsmeade as exciting as some would.

Hermione had given an almost hurt expression as Ron left without a goodbye or acknowledgment to her; Hermione could have been described as rather sensitive when it came to her two best friends, but mostly when it came to Ron. It wasn't a hidden secret that Hermione could have had harbored feelings for him or vice versa, but Ron was rather childish compared to her.

Ron, however, had been burnt by Hermione the year before with the Krum business, and Harry could tell he wouldn't forget it any time soon...thus, the reason he hoped the name Viktor Krum would fall of the radar screen entirely; tough luck.

"Don't worry, Hermione, we can meet up with him later on in the day; we can buy his present now that we've been separated."

"That's true, but who said I was going to buy him a gift?"

"Blimey, Granger!" Fred and George said in union, with their mischievous grins again before finally stepping up towards where Filch was standing; Filch had instantly gave them dirty looks before shooing them with his hand.

"Do you reckon he'll do it?"

"He has to..."

"But do you reckon it was a good idea with..."

"He wanted to join, George." They had began their descent down the castle stairs, looking behind them every so often, making sure they were out of ear shot.

"And you can't join the club without meeting the challenge..."

"We solemnly swear we're up to no good...now forget it, let's visit Zonko's and buy Won Won, something special..."

"Mum would murder us if she found out, but oh what an excellent idea, Fred...Won Won would love a gift from our favorite joke shop."


End file.
